


A P.I. And A Detective Walk Into A House

by janey_p



Series: Fluffvember 2020 [14]
Category: Magnum P.I. (TV 2018)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Case Fic, Close call, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluffvember 2020, Happy Ending, House Hunting, M/M, Prompt Fill, Serial Killers, Suspense, Undercover, some at least
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:15:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27540661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/janey_p/pseuds/janey_p
Summary: Sounds like the beginning of a joke? If you asked the guys, they’d tell you its punchline isn’t that funny, though.Or:Thomas and Gordon pretend to go house hunting for a case. What could possibly go wrong?
Relationships: Gordon Katsumoto/Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV
Series: Fluffvember 2020 [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1992121
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	A P.I. And A Detective Walk Into A House

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt #14: **“When we get that house you’re handling the spiders.”**
> 
> Loosely connected to [How Not To Listen To Assholes](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27760915)
> 
> I modified the prompt a little to fit better into the setting. And the fluff is _very_ slow in coming this time—squint, and you'll miss it… Where the hell did this elaborate case come from???  
> I’m just glad I wrote the bulk of it three weeks ago. It would never have been finished in time, had I gone through the prompts in chronological order. XD (it was a very close call anyway)

Logan Manor. Thomas couldn’t help but think that that was false advertising. The house was undoubtedly pretty and had a well-maintained garden. But it was by far not big enough to deserve being called a _manor_. He wondered if whoever had named it had wanted to compensate for something. Or maybe the realtor, a certain Amanda “just Amanda, please” Cartwright, had invented it to make it more attractive to potential buyers.

He grinned at the thought but fell right back into his role when he caught Amanda’s calculating glance.

“I love the view from here. That’s an impressive hau tree over there,” he said, walking towards the bay window.

The realtor followed, starting to tell him about the ancient tree that apparently had already been old when the house had been built.

Good. While the woman talked, she hopefully wouldn’t notice that Gordon had stayed behind in the bedroom. The more time he had to look for evidence, the better.

*** * ***

When Gordon finally joined them in the living room, Thomas turned away from the window to make a show of inspecting the fireplace. He didn’t even have to fake his interest in it when he discovered the fine carvings around the mantlepiece.

The shiver that ran through him at a sudden draft was real, too. And he hadn’t been the only one to feel it. Which gave him an idea that he was sure Gordon would have vetoed as too reckless…

“Ohhh, that was a little spooky!” he said, making it sound delighted. “You know, that reminds me of a rumor we’ve heard. People around here seem to believe that the house is haunted. Is that _true_?” 

Gordon glared at him over Amanda’s stiffening shoulders. Ah, it looked like he had managed to poke two bears at once. He’d deal with Gordon’s displeasure later. For now, he was pleased to have gotten a reaction out of their suspect.

A suspect who had, by their count, most likely killed fifteen people in almost nineteen years. Sure, her reaction didn’t prove that she was guilty, and so it was not enough for an arrest yet. But it erased all lingering doubt he might still have had. 

The house had been sold seven times since the man whose grandfather had built it had died. And every time, the owners had disappeared after a few years—five couples of varying ages, an old woman, and a family of three.

Thomas had gotten involved three weeks after the most recent owners had gone missing, and the worried brother of the wife had wanted to find out what had happened to them. 

A few days later, a man’s decomposing body had been found, whose death Gordon had ended up investigating. The man had turned out to have been the gardener of Logan Manor, probably dead because he had been a witness. 

Gordon and Thomas had soon come to the conclusion that the realtor must have done it. Because—among other things—all seven times the house had been sold, it had been finalized by the same woman. What they were still missing, though, was a motive and more than just circumstantial evidence. 

Which led them here, to Thomas provoking Amanda, and Gordon visibly wanting to wring his neck for it.

“I can’t say that I’ve heard of that rumor, I’m afraid,” Amanda said. “And that draft just now came from the fireplace. I’d say that’s not so strange, is it?” 

“I’m glad to hear that,” Gordon interjected before Thomas could say anything else. “I’d rather not share a living room with someone… I can’t see.” 

Hah! Thomas was almost sure that Gordon had been about to say “someone dead”. And while it would have been an amusing choice of words, he was sure Amanda wouldn’t have appreciated the humor in that. 

“Let’s see the kitchen now?” he decided to change the topic. Two more rooms and the basement to go, after all. And no evidence yet. What if there wasn’t any in the house? It _had_ been almost a month now. She had had more than enough time to clean up after herself. If the owners had even died here and not somewhere else, that was. 

Without any proof of her guilt, they’d have to make her confess. And failing that, they’d have to wait anywhere between two and four years for her to go after whoever bought the house next. 

Which wouldn’t be him and Gordon since neither of them was willing to go undercover for that long. 

*** * ***

While Amanda was demonstrating all the gimmicks that the fully furnished kitchen was boasting, Thomas let his eyes wander around the room. He was starting to lose hope that they’d find anything worthwhile today. Might be best to come up with a few ways to make her betray herself, then.

His mind already set on this new task, he almost missed the little, irregular stain in the corner, where the counter ended right under the windowsill. 

He hastily checked that Amanda’s attention was still caught elsewhere and took a closer look.

Okay, that definitely was blood. And in such an awkward place that it was unlikely to have gotten there via a common kitchen-related accident.

Now, how to show Gordon without Amanda seeing it, too? Should he play it safe and say nothing? Hmmm, he could always take a photo, and they’d come back later with a warrant.

Before he had time to stash away his phone again, Amanda turned around to look for him. His breath caught. If she realized what he was doing, their potential evidence would be gone before they could secure it.

Thinking fast, Thomas jumped back to cover up what he’d been doing. In the process, he almost knocked a decorative vase off the windowsill. Whoops? He caught Gordon’s face going through several expressions at his show of clumsiness and finally settling on displeasure.

“What’s _wrong_ with you?” Gordon demanded.

“There’s a really ugly spider in that corner,” Thomas replied with an affected shudder but kept his back to the corner to block Amanda’s view of it.

“So? Either leave it be or get rid of it. It’s not the end of the world.” Gordon rolled his eyes. But Thomas could see that he’d realized that something else was going on.

“Says the guy who hasn’t seen it jerk its hairy legs at him. _Ugh!_ When we get this house, _you’re_ handling the spiders.”

“When? Not if?” Amanda asked, her voice strangely flat. “If the spiders bother you, and the rumors about ghosts bother your partner, wouldn’t you want some time to weigh your options?” 

“Absolutely not,” Thomas insisted. “We’d be the cool couple at every party if we could claim we’re living in a haunted house. He just doesn’t want to admit that he’s intrigued. And he’ll gladly play pest control for me, too. Isn’t that right, honey?” 

Gordon’s eyebrow twitched almost imperceptibly at the pet name. But he obediently went to inspect the place Thomas was pointing at. 

Amanda’s sudden, sharp “Stop!” was accompanied by an ominous click. 

And yep, that was a gun in her hand, firmly aimed at Gordon. How the hell had the situation escalated this fast? 

“Step away from the counter!” Amanda hissed. “And don’t you dare try to do something about whatever you saw over there.” 

Damn, it looked like they hadn’t been subtle enough! Thomas cursed inwardly. He didn’t dare draw his own gun since she already had her finger on the trigger. She would definitely be faster than him, and he wouldn’t risk Gordon’s life—not any more than he already had. 

*** * ***

Later, Thomas wouldn’t be able to recall everything that happened next. He just reacted, single-mindedly working on eliminating the threat to Gordon. Because Gordon getting hurt was _not an option_. 

So, by the time he was thinking clearly again, he had Amanda pinned to the floor, and her gun kicked out of reach to the other end of the room. Gordon was staring at both of them like he had trouble processing what had just happened. Thomas couldn’t blame him. 

“A little help here?” he asked anyway when Amanda tried to struggle free.

“Oh!” Gordon snapped out of his state of shock and reached for his handcuffs. “Of course.”

Amanda stopped fighting them for a surprised moment when the handcuffs closed around her wrists. But once she realized that she was arrested now, she redoubled her efforts and began to rant about how unfair the world was. 

The house was _hers_. Nobody else should be allowed to live there—especially not the greedy strangers who had bought it over the years and therefore had deserved what had happened to them. And hopefully, her father was rotting in hell for having made her sell the house over and over again. 

It sounded like deranged nonsense to Thomas. But by asking a couple of pointed questions, they learned that the house had belonged to her father almost two decades ago. The old man had apparently not wanted her to have it after his death and had demanded that she had to sell it, with the profits going to charity. There also seemed to have been a clause in his will that stated she’d have to keep selling it whenever it ended up on the market again. 

All right, and there she went right back to not making sense anymore. Thomas was sure she could have found a way around that clause. The most logical being to contest the will and demand the application of the inheritance laws. She wouldn’t have needed to kill the owners every time she found she couldn’t stand the thought of them living in “her” house any longer. But since that option had never even occurred to her, he guessed that her madness wasn’t a new development.

With the discussion effectively being over, Amanda started struggling against their hold on her again. It got bad enough that she accidentally knocked herself out when a particularly violent jerk sent her crashing into a wall.

*** * ***

Ten minutes later, Thomas and Gordon sat on the porch steps and enjoyed the blessed silence. They had cuffed the still unconscious Amanda to the handrail, just far enough away from them that she wouldn’t be able to kick them if she suddenly woke up.

There was one thing Thomas wanted to know, though, since Gordon seemed to be stalling.

“We’re not bringing her in for interrogation?”

“Nah, I called for backup and forensics while she vented at you. The way she acted, I wouldn’t have wanted to have her sit behind me on the drive into the city.”

“Good point,” Thomas conceded and shuffled a little closer to Gordon, just to reassure himself that he was okay. He could so easily not have been, after all.

Since Thomas did feel responsible for the earlier gun scare, he muttered a heartfelt “I’m sorry” in Gordon’s direction.

“What do you have to be sorry for?”

“I didn’t notice she had a gun. Had I known, I would never have provoked her the way I did.” 

“Hey, no!” Gordon protested and tugged Thomas against his side. “Don’t blame yourself. I hadn’t noticed it either.” 

“I’ve still put you in danger.”

“And you got me out of it again without bloodshed. So we’re even.” Gordon paused to press a kiss against Thomas’s temple. Then he continued cheerfully, “And we have what we came here for, now. Not just the evidence we were hoping to get, but a confession on top of it.” 

“There’s that. I actually wouldn’t have expected her to lose her composure quite _that_ hard, but I’m glad it pretty much wrapped up our investigation…” 

As if on cue, they saw the first squad car arriving and Thomas allowed himself a relieved sigh.

The day was far from over—for both of them—in the aftermath of Amanda’s arrest. But with another serial killer taken off the streets, they knew they’d be able to sleep soundly tonight. 


End file.
